Update

It is time to give an update straight from the P. E. area. Every cycle of my chemotherapy lasts four weeks. Monday was three weeks so I had a bone marrow biopsy to check my progress.

When I started the chemo I had these bad cells in my marrow measured at 21%. The bad guys are called "blasts" and they are red cells produced by the cancer that are larger than regular red cells, and they live longer. They crowd out the good cells so I end up with not enough blood. The goal of the first four-week cycle is to get the blasts measure down to 5% or lower. This state is called "remission." At this level of measurement my good stem cells can produce enough good blood that I can be out of the protective environment. From the biopsy Monday the blasts are down to 9%. There seems to be some hope that the blast measure will continue to decline this week. So I do not have a definitive report to give you. I will have another biopsy this coming Monday and it will determine what will happen next. I am unwilling to speculate what that will be.

The best case is that the blasts go down and I enter the "continuing" phases of my treatment. The goal of these phases is to continue to attack the cancer, but with doses of chemo that do not take my body so far down to need the P. E. So I ask you to pray that my blasts will be down low enough.

One perplexing aspect of this ordeal is that my body is supposed to start increasing my blood counts. This is not happening yet, but the doctors do not seem to be concerned. So pray that I can remain patient. The good news is that I am suffering almost no side effects. I have had no fever since Saturday night, and I am sleeping much better. In fact, they are taking me off of some of the antibiotics because I have had no fever for a while. I am slowly losing the excess fluid that has accumulated in my body. I have no appetite, but I am able to force myself to eat so that I can remain healthy. I am trying to exercise my legs and lungs, but it is difficult because I am so weak. Nevertheless, God is good.

And the USA just beat the best soccer team in the world (Spain) 2-0. What a great game.

What Cancer Cannot Do

The following is in a pamphlet from the Chaplaincy and Pastoral Education ministry of M. D. Anderson Hospital. It has probably been distributed widely, but I had not seen it, and it meant a great deal to me. So I am sharing it with you.

Cancer is so limited . . .

it cannot cripple Love.
it cannot shatter Hope.
it cannot corrode Faith.
it cannot destroy Peace.
it cannot kill Friendship.
it cannot suppress Memories.
it cannot silence Courage.
it cannot invade the Soul.
it cannot steal Eternal Life.
it cannot conquer the Spirit.

Cancer is so limited!

Golf Gods

Through the years my golfing buddies and I have learned an important lesson. Let's say that we have been working on our game pretty hard and we go to the course to try it out. It sometimes starts out to be one of those magic days -- the ball goes where we plan for it to go, our putts are on the line we try to hit, we can consistently hit the ball instead of topping, hitting fat, etc. It is at this time one is tempted to say, "I think I have finally figured this game out." The lesson we have learned is to NEVER say that, because the instant you do, the golf gods take it personally and set about to prove to you just how idiotically wrong you are. The rest of the round is usually no fun at all.

As we all know, golf reflects life itself, so one should apply this principle in life as well. Sunday, I violated it. I declared that I had turned the corner with respect to my roller coaster fever. I was seriously expecting to feel good from now on. So of course it turned and bit me. I am still on the roller coaster. But the good news is that the high temps are lower than they used to be, and the peaks seem to be gradually decreasing. Mind you, I am NOT saying that they will continue that way (hear that, fever gods?) but it seems to be a trend.

I am getting a full bank of antibiotics, and a serious anti fungal medication, and likely will continue to do so until my body recovers enough to take over. My counts have not started to rebound yet, and the nurses assure me that it takes time. So please pray that the anti-stuff works, and that I can be patient.

Looking forward to getting to watch a lot of the US Open starting Thursday.

Roller Coaster

Starting Tuesday, I have been on a roller coaster ride with my temperature. This is caused by infections of some type or types somewhere or somewheres in my body. We have been running through various different antibiotics with not much success. One of the roller coaster days (they run together for me without much distinction) I was given a C T Scan. They looked at my lungs and my sinuses. My sinuses have been outputting tremendous amounts of phlegm. Gross, and it makes my head and face hurt.

The scan showed a possible fungus infection in a lung, but no problems with the sinuses. They have started me on a strong anti fungal medicine, which can have some revolting side effects. But, God be praised, I do not seem to be suffering them. Then this morning, the doctor said that there was a possible second infection site in the lungs which, I think, is bacterial. So I am getting a steady supply of antibiotics, and I will continue to get these until my body had recovered enough to protect itself. It is amazing how much more efficient God's healing methods are than man's.

Therefore a prayer request is that my body will start rebounding quickly and take over the fight against the infections. Clearly I am feeling better because I have felt like doing two posts today. God be praised.

Day 10, 3 Days Late.

Day 10 is significant because it is my last day of chemotherapy in the "start-up" cycle of treatment in the clinical trial. Each treatment cycle lasts 28 days, so I now have 18 days to "recover" before the next cycle. What I receive in the next cycle will not be known until near the end of the first cycle, because it depends on how my body is reacting to the first doses. One possibility is that I will have to repeat the same procedure as the first time. Pray that is not the case. The other possibility is that I will enter a regimen of 17 "continuing" cycles as prescribed by the clinical trial. Of course, they may have to take me out of the trial at any time because things are not working as they should. Pray that that does not happen.

There is my future, as far as we can see. I should mention that I should not have to be hospitalized much during the "continuing" cycles. In fact, a lot of that may be able to be done in Abilene. We shall see.

God is good.

From now on, do not count on daily posts. I will post when I have enough information to be worth reading about. Please keep praying.

Day 9

We are having trouble conquering my fevers. Last night about midnight I could tell my temperature was climbing. It reached 102 degrees. Another call to the doctor, warm blankets, ice packs, and medicines finally brought it down to where I could sleep. Then this morning I awoke about 7:30 and felt great. I ordered breakfast, ate it, answered e-mail, etc.

The doctor came much earlier today and caught me with my pants down. Be was rubbing creme on my rash and my pajamas were down at my feet. No one batted an eye -- Be subtly pulled a sheet over my lower half. The Doctor is perplexed about my continuing fevers. My lungs are clear -- no pneumonia, my urine shows nothing,
and my blood work shows nothing. I do have pressure in my sinuses and my head drains a lot. So they took a swab there today and will run a test on it. They have also started me on a second type of antibiotic. The drainage from my sinus has left me with laryngitis. Bummer! You know how I love to talk.

My temperature started up again about noon, but they got it under enough control that I did not feel too bad, just listless. So now we are praying specifically that we can find and defeat the infection somewhere in my body. One of the nurses pointed out that when you have no defense against infection, it is difficult to find where it is located.

My temperature is up a little tonight, but I hope I can sleep it off. In any case, God is good.

Day 8

Late in the day yesterday my temperature started to rise and I started feeling droopy. I went to bed at 10:00 pm and immediately fell asleep. About 11:45 I got up to use the bathroom and during that process, I got a tremendous case of the shivers. The nurse came in about that time and noticed it. She took my temperature and it was high enough that she was required to call the doctor. They started giving me drugs to stop the shivering and to lower my temperature and I slept until 7:30 am. Of course, there were brief times where I had my vital signs taken, had some of my blood taken, and so forth.

About 8:00 this morning, they started me on an infusion antibiotic but I was still feverish and feeling really lousy as well as still sleepy. When Be came I just lay in bed and hardly moved. We battled this condition all morning and into the afternoon. About 3:00 pm I suddenly felt hungry. So I ordered some lunch, ate it, and have been feeling a lot better since. I even did 12 minutes on the "exercise bike." Tonight at 8:30 I had a supper of a hamburger and onion rings. Oh, I was given another bag of red blood cells today. I am anticipating a much better day tomorrow.

Here are the promised photos: Me on my bike and Be in her cap and gown.

Day 7

Today I did not feel bad and I did not feel good. I slept between 5 and 6 hours last night, and took a few short naps today. But the main thing is that I seem to running through ALL the side effects of chemo. Now I am developing a rash. It has not been very itchy, but the nurse just brought me some creme to help it heal and ease the itch. I even got a back rub from her since Be is back at my brother's place. I also started some diarrhea this morning. They gave me a pill for that and all is ok so far.

We discovered in the PE it is more difficult to keep me supplied with clean clothes, and they will not permit my usual habit of bathing and changing only once a week. So before she came here today, Be went to target and bought me some more pajamas. I wear pajama bottoms and T-shirts that I got for giving blood at Meek Blood Center. It is ironic isn't it? I donated almost 16 gallons of whole blood, and now I am quickly getting it back. Today it was a bag of platelets and another bag of red blood cells. I should feel better tomorrow.

The day seemed to pass pretty quickly, and I got in two sessions of more than 10 minutes each on my "exercise bike." I will post a photo when I get the cable to download it into the computer.

Be went to the second (and last) of the classes she has to attend to learn how to be prepared to take care of my infusion port when I am discharged from the hospital. But she cannot eat in my room, so we cannot have lunch together. She took care of both those chores efficiently. I think you know that she has to wear floppy shoes, a gown, gloves, and a mask the entire time she is here with me, while I am free as a bird. She is a real trooper. On the other hand, she gets to go out of the room and I do not.

I have a different doctor seeing me now, but she says essentially the same thing he did. Today she asked me how I am doing. I told her that I did not know, and would she tell me. She said I am doing good.

Finally, Be observed that many, many people are praying for us, so she offered to pray for their requests if they would send them. She reads them to me and I pray also. When I have trouble sleeping at night, I start praying. Then I fall asleep. When I wake later and need to fall again, I start right where I left off.

God hears our prayers, and He is good.

Day 6 - Movin' on up - to the penthouse

It worked the way I hoped. I went to bed and slept. I really rested last night, and took no pain medicine. Today I slept very little. Just some cat naps, but I always do that. Praise God!

I felt good all day today. Be went to church with Tinker and Betty, and came to the hospital in time to eat her lunch while I ate mine. But that is the last time for a while that we will eat together because a room finally opened up in the protective environment (PE) area.

When we learned we were moving up to the 10th floor, we also learned that we could watch a video clip describing what it would be like up here. BIG MISTAKE! It turns out the video is out-of-date and it scared us to death. It talked about Be having to be behind a glass panel and talking to me by phone. It also said I could not have my cell phone or computer in the room. We both almost cried.

But it is not like that. They accepted all of my stuff into the room. Be can be in the room with me but she has to wear a cap and gown. (She must be graduating.) I also have some minor inconveniences. I have to potty in a bag, and take only sponge baths. They trying to prevent places where fungi can grow. The air in the room is circulated and purified six times every hour.

It feels very pure in here, maybe a whiff of heaven's environment? God is good.

Oh, and Tiger came from 4 back and won the Memorial Golf Tournament.

Day Five -- A Benchmark

This was the fifth day of taking chemotherapy. The protocol for the clinical trial I am in calls for an infusion chemo once a day for five days and a chemo by injection through a needle twice a day for 10 days. So now I have had five infusions and 10 shots. For the next five days I will get only the shots. I hope this removes some of the side-effects. Today was pretty good in the way I felt because I have started taking a pain killer. I just take it when I request it, and it stops the aching in my leg and back muscles. I did walk before the infusion last night as planned, and slept through most of the hour of the infusion. Then I took a pain pill and felt ok but I got very little sleep. But this morning I took another pain pill and slept off and on for about two hours. I took short naps several times during the day and have felt pretty good with the help of the pain medicine.

Today was Be's birthday, so Tuell and Sharla and their three daughters flew to Houston to spend part of the day with her and celebrate her birthday. Be met them at Hobby airport a little before 10 and they all came directly to M. D. Anderson. Be and Tuell came up to my room and helped my get the room and myself presentable, then they went back down and Tuell and Sharla came up while Be played with the girls. There is a skywalk over a main street which may be seen from the window of my room. So Be and the girls went in the skywalk to a place where I could see them and they could see me, and I talked to them by cell phone. That was wonderful. Tuell and Sharla left a little after 12 and took Be out to eat, and gave her a birthday cake they had brought, and then went to a park near the hospital. Be said they had a great time, and she took them to the airport so they could catch a 5:00 o'clock flight. Then she came back here until we had both eaten supper. She will go to church with Tinker and Betty in the morning before returning up here.

I am still not in isolation but will go as soon as a room is available. When the doctor came in this morning he said, "We came to see how you are doing with the little green monsters!" With a large smile I said, "I hope you were not offended by that." He said it was very funny and he was not offended at all. He says he wishes all his patients were doing as well as me. That is very encouraging.

I am going to walk a little bit in a minute, and I am expecting to sleep much better tonight. We just praise God for how He is answering our prayers in many, many ways. Please keep praying. God is good.

Day Four

The plan worked pretty well. By exercising right before the chemo, and taking two pain pills soon after, I slept much better last night. And today I felt better, although I did have to request one pain pill this afternoon. It worked. One of the nurses encouraged me to walk outside of the cluster of rooms in my ward, so we walked far enough that as we were returning we went back through the doors that say "Only leukemia patients and their visitors permitted." The nurse wanted me to walk to help me keep from retaining fluids.

This was a very encouraging day. When the doctor and his henchpersons came in to see me this morning he said, "I don't know why I even come in here. You are doing great. If all my patients were like you I could go drink coffee all morning!" That gave me the courage to pull off my joke about the little green men at the foot of my bed. When all of them started looking at the foot of my bed to see the little green men, I knew I could not keep them in suspense so I quickly said, "That was a joke." And they all laughed. One of them, who has seen us several times and sounds like he has a German accent, felt free to smilingly comment that Mrs. Green was wearing green today.

Be had to spend about two hours attending a class to learn how to take care of my infusion port when I get out of the hospital. She has to go to another one before we leave, and then prove that she can do it successfully. She is still like she was in college. She used to think that she was going to FAIL many exams that she prepared for, and then she would usually make an A.

I plan to use the same strategy tonight that worked last night, and I hope to feel good when Tuell and Sharla and their three girls come to see me tomorrow. Of course, I will not get to be face-to-face with the girls, but we are devising strategies for my being able to talk to them on the phone while they can see me in my hospital window.

I just reflected for a moment to decide how to close this post. I cannot come up with anything better -- God is good!

Day Three

My sweet wife suggested that I munch on crushed ice to help fight off the nausea. So I equipped myself for the battle by exercising in a rocker in my room at about 11 pm to get myself really tired. I got a cup of ice ready, and located a half bag of baked potato chips and placed it handy. Up to a point, it worked. I slept for the hour during the infusion of the gunk that makes me sick, then woke up and started eating the ice and the potato chips. The nausea was under control enough that I did not need medication to fight it off. That was great.

But the downside is that an new enemy attacked. With increasing vigor, my muscles started aching like the worst case of the flu I have ever had. I tried exercising and it helped, but that can only last so long because I get tired. I watched an old Cary Grant black-and-white movie to keep my mind active. But still no sleep. About 3 am, I asked for a pain pill and was told they were not permitted to give me one after 2 am. Bummer. So I made it through the night with fitful sleep. When Be came, I was feeling horrible. She rubbed my back and my legs and it felt so good. She also insisted that I order some breakfast even though I was not hungry at all. Where does she get this wisdom? I ate some breakfast at about 11 am, and felt some better for a while. In the afternoon I tried watching the Memorial Golf Tournament, and I slept off and on the rest of the afternoon. Sometime during this ordeal I asked for a pain pill, and it helped. Tonight I am feeling pretty good --watching the Lakers destroy the Magic and reading e-mail and Facebook.

I had a surprise visitor this morning -- Brent Isbell. The story behind this is that Brent is the pulpit minister for the Bering Drive Church of Christ here in Houston, and we at the University Church of Christ have just hired him to be our new pulpit minister. He said he has been getting a ton of e-mail from UCC members telling him that I was down here. I was really glad to meet him, and I like him a lot, even though have only briefly met.

Tonight I plan to have the ice and potato chips handy, and I plan to exercise until I am tired. But I have also requested two pain pills to help me sleep. The doctor says that I am doing great. When I complained about the insomnia and nausea, he said that it was from the chemo. When I complained about the flu-like symptoms, he said that it was the chemo. Tomorrow I plan to complain about little green men at the foot of my bed and see if that is the result of chemo. Of course there are no little green men (those come from the DT's), but I hope to make him laugh.

I love you all. God is good.

PS. Be donated platelets today to help M. D. Anderson Hospital. It took more than three hours of her time. Isn't she a sweetheart? I am immeasurably blessed.

Day 2 Finished

I take the infusion chemo at midnight each night. I was planning to just sleep through it, but as you know, it did not happen. I finally got about an hour of sleep from 10:30 to 11:30 last night, so I needed to do something to help me sleep during the infusion. So I walked in place in my room for about 10 minutes to get my body tired. And it worked! The nurse started the infusion and I fell asleep. I woke when she came back at 1 am. I tried to go back to sleep and it would not happen. About 2:00 am I started feeling nauseous. After about 30 minutes of trying to will the nausea away, I called for some medication. The medicine knocked me out and a person woke me at 6:30 to draw blood. After that I was in and out of sleep, but still feeling poorly. Finally at about 8:30 I felt good enough to order breakfast.

Be came at about 9:15 as I was eating. She is still having trouble finding a spot to park in the cheaper lot. But we are still exploring options for parking.

Both yesterday and today, a young summer intern from the Life Line ministry of the Bering Drive Church of Christ came in to visit us. It turns out that he just finished his sophomore year at ACU. He is very nice and offers to help us in any way he can. Also a lady from the M. D. Anderson blood bank came in yesterday, and she encouraged Be to donate platelets while she is here. In Abilene, we cannot both give whole blood AND platelets, but here you can. So Be plans to do that in the morning at 10 am. She left at 5:30 so she could go to church with Tinker and Betty.

I was given another unit of blood this afternoon and I am feeling quite alert and strong tonight. In fact, I put on my face mask and walked around the nurses' station several times. It felt good to walk.

Now I wait for the third bout. Thank you for praying. God is good.

Cure For Narcolepsy?

It appears that I have accidentally discovered a cure for narcolepsy -- leukemia! I got very little sleep Sunday night, then had the long day Monday with no sleep, and last night it felt like I did not get more than one or two hours of sleep. Today was more relaxed but only about an hour of sleep during the day. I pray that tonight is better.

I am through the first of five 24-hour cycles. I started receiving the first of five infusions of chemo just before midnight. Maybe that is why I could not sleep. We will find out tonight when I get the second one. Then at 4:00 in the morning I was given a shot of a different chemo, and then another one 12 hours later. This cycle will continue for four more days. The shots are not bad, and when I am not in the hospital, either Be will give them to me or I will do it myself

Be arrived about 10:30 exasperated because our favorite (cheaper) parking lot was full. So, at my encouragement, she parked in one of the more expensive ones. It did not take much encouragement! She will probably adjust her departure time in the morning to be able to find a spot in the cheaper lot, even though the traffic may be heavier.

Iwas given two units of blood today, so I should feel stronger tomorrow. Today I was exceedingly tired all day. But I did some reading, and Be and I played a game of gin rummy. She let me beat her. :) I do not have much of an appetite, but I am forcing myself to eat. So far no major reactions to chemo.

No matter what, God is good. I know that I do not have to ask you to keep praying. I love you all.

In The Hospital

Be and I got away later than we planned on Sunday but the trip seemed to take less time than before. So we arrived at Tinker and Betty's at just the right time -- they were home from church and just finishing supper. We were supposed to be at MD Anderson at 8:00 this morning, and Tinker said that traffic would be bad at that time, so we headed back for bed about 9:45. One delay in getting away Sunday was a very nice thing. Our small group that has Bible study together most Sunday evenings came to our house after the morning service and prayed over us. That was a great blessing.

This morning we arose about 6, planning to leave at 6:45. We ate breakfast, and got away at 7:00. But the traffic was not too bad, so by the time we parked in the remote parking and walked (slowly) to the hospital, it was about 8:15, and we were pretty much on schedule. I had my vital signs taken, then they drew several vials of blood, and we rode a cart to another building, arriving at 9:00, the correct time for my next appointment.

This appointment was so they could place a port in my arm in which to give the chemotherapy. The port is on my upper right arm, and the tube runs through my vein to a point near my heart. I had a moment of light-headedness during the insertion and felt quite hot, but it passed quickly. The nurse (male) doing the procedure said it was a bit unusual for a person to experience this, but he did not seem concerned. By the time the procedure was done, I was fine. But then I had to go for an X-ray to make sure that the tube was in the correct place. It was.

Next we went on to another place to have my heart examined so that I could be accepted into the clinical trial. They made Be stay in the waiting area while this happened, and they did not tell us how long it would take. I began to feel sorry for her because I was in there a long time. First I went to get an injection that would "mark" my red blood cells. Then I had to just sit there for 20 minutes. Next they injected some radioactive juice in me, and sent me down the hall to a "men's waiting area." They separated the men from the women because many of the patients were wearing the gowns that are open in the back. I had on my regular clothes. After some time I heard a female voice down the hall call out, "Mrs. Green?" So I yelled out, "That's MISTER Green," and all the men in the room laughed. The girl was very embarrassed.

I was taken to a room, put on a flat bed, and rolled under this cover that was to take pictures of my heart. The first picture took one minute. The second and third pictures took 10 minutes each! Poor Be had no idea what was going on. Finally I came back to where she was waiting at about 1:15 and we headed to eat before our appointment with the Dr. at 2:15. This meant that we rode the cart (actually I rode and Be walked) back to the main building and had lunch in the cafeteria. We did not have to rush and had plenty of time.

But we were taken in to a private room pretty quickly. We answered questions for a nurse, then a PA, and then the doctor came. The latest bone marrow biopsy confirmed the other one. I have 21% "blasts" in my bone marrow, so I officially have AML. I passed the heart test, and the process for starting to admit me began. This was about 3:30. Also I had to sign papers that I understood what terrible things could happen to me.

At the admission area, we learned that a room would not be available until about 8:00 pm. It was about 4:45 at this time. So we decided to go out for one last fling. We tried to go to the Galleria Mall, but three different people could not describe how to get there in a way that worked for me. We ended up at a very nice strip mall, and ate at a mexican food place called Esperito's (I think.) We split an order of fajitas (chicken and beef combination) and it was very good. We arrived back at the admission area about 7:30 and they got us in a room right away. But it is probabaly a temporary room because one was not available in the "isolation" area where I am supposed to be. But they plan to start my chomotherapy tonight anyway. Be stayed here until about 8:30 and she is driving to Tinker's now, by herself for the first time. She was not looking forward to that.

Well, if you made it to here in this story, I'm amazed. It is long. More to come later. Please keep praying for both Be and me.